Come Closer: Songs on Texts by Elizabeth Krehm – Intermezzo

Come Closer began as an orchestral song cycle by composer Ryan Trew with poetry by Elizabeth Krehm (1990 – 2012) and has been performed by Rachel Krehm with The Thunder Bay Symphony (2023), North York Concert Orchestra (2023), Canzona Chamber Players (2022 and 2018), and the Kingston Symphony Orchestra (2021).

It is now a full opera that takes an emotional look at the grief of losing a sister, based on the personal experiences of Rachel Krehm, who lost her sister Elizabeth to addiction. Come Closer follows Big Sister through a series of waking dreams sparked by the poetry of her late Little Sister. As Big Sister reads, she explores the past and her mind tries to make sense of who her sister was, their relationship, what happened, and how to continue forward.

We performing a selection from the opera – Intermezzo.

Ryan Trew

Dr. Ryan Trew is a composer, percussionist, and music theory pedagogue. As a composer, Ryan’s works have been performed by renowned Canadian ensembles including the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Prince George Symphony Orchestra, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. worked extensively with Maestro Evan Mitchell who is one of the most innovative and sought after conductors in Canada.  In 2013, Ryan received his Doctorate of Music at the University of British Columbia. Ryan has studied with several eminent Canadian composers including Christos Hatzis, Peter Hatch, Glenn Buhr, and Stephen Chatman.

Living in a modern tonal world, Ryan’s compositions focus on rhythmic, harmonic and timbral relationships, while incorporating popular styles and classical idioms in unique and unfamiliar contexts. His music has been described as “sumptuous, remarkable and constantly surprising.” Audiences across the country have consistently found his works to be deeply compelling.

Ryan was a winner of the Vancouver Symphony Olympic Commissioning Project in 2010, and was asked to compose a piece in celebration of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. The resulting commission of “Starlike” was premiered by Bramwell Tovey with the VSO and, hailed as a triumph, has since been performed over forty times by orchestras across the country. His first set of orchestral songs entitled “Come Closer” was premiered to great acclaim in Toronto in 2018 and again in 2022 by Rachel Krehm and the Canzona Chamber Players.

Ryan is currently composing an 85-minute chamber opera and has been invited to participate in several development workshops including: The Banff Centre, Opera McGill Beta Lab and Pacific Opera Victoria. This work is scheduled to premiere in 2024.

As an active educator, Ryan has instructed all levels of music theory in both larger classroom contexts in a university setting and in private classes and lessons within the community. In addition, Ryan has several composition students whose works have been performed publicly by both the Vancouver Symphony and Victoria Symphony.

Violin Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 14

Violin Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 14 was composed in 1853 by Polish violinist and composer Henryk Wieniawski. Although Wieniawski was only 18 years old, this violin concerto reflects his deep understanding of the instrument’s capabilities and his innovative approach to violin composition. 

I. Allegro moderato
II. Preghiera: Larghetto
III. Rondo: Allegro giocoso

Marked by passages of extreme virtuosity, the concerto reflects the influence of earlier composers such as Niccolò Paganini, whose virtuosic style inspired Wieniawski’s technical approach. The first movement opens with a dramatic orchestral introduction, followed by a demanding violin entry in F# minor. The passage features lyrical melodies and complex harmonic passages, followed by demonstration on the soloist’s technical brilliance for the rest of the movement. 

The second movement is a lyrical and expressive prayer-like piece. It allows the violin to sing with beautiful, sustained melodies, highlighting Wieniawski’s ability to write deeply emotional music.

The final movement is lively and exuberant, filled with dazzling technical feats and rhythmic energy. The rondo form allows the violinist to showcase a variety of techniques, bringing the concerto to a spirited and triumphant conclusion.

Henri Wieniawski (1835 – 1880)

Henryk Wieniawski was born in Lublin, Poland on 10 July 1835 into a family who combined an interest in social welfare with a passion for music.  His mother Regina studied piano in Paris and subsequently brought her musical interests into the home. Out of three of Wieniawski’s siblings, two played the piano and one sang. With the house being steeped in piano music, particularly the music of Chopin, yet he chose to learn the violin instead at the age of 5. 

Wieniawski received great guidance from great teachers like Jan Hornziel and Stanisław Serwaczyński. He made amazing progress on the violin, and gave his first solo public appearance at the age of 7. At the age of 8, Wieniawski gained admittance to the Paris Conservatory at the age of eight and graduated as a violinist three years later. In 1849, he to study harmony and refine his skills as a composer. 

Once he graduate from the academy, Wieniawski went touring with his younger brother Józef Wieniawski, who was a wunderkind pianist. On top of his intense performance schedule, Henryk composed at least 16 pieces by 1854, including the Polonaise de concert (Opus 4) and his Violin Concerto No. 1, which earned acclaim when he performed it at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. As a performer, he amazed audiences with his stupendous technique, emotive phrasing, and rich tone. As a composer, he masterfully combined dazzling virtuosity with genuine Romantic inspiration.

He became a mainstay of the finest concert halls in Europe and from 1860–72 worked from his home base in Saint Petersburg, where he had settled at the urging of the pianist Anton Rubinstein. He served as solo violinist to the tsar, was concertmaster for the Russian Musical Society (and first violinist of its string quartet), and taught at the newly established Saint Petersburg Conservatory.

Despite his professional success, Wieniawski’s later years were marked by health problems, particularly heart disease. He continued to perform and compose despite his declining health, showing remarkable dedication to his art.

Henryk Wieniawski died on March 31, 1880, in Moscow, Russia. His death marked the loss of one of the 19th century’s greatest violinists and composers. His legacy lives on through his compositions, which remain central to the violin repertoire, and through the Wieniawski Violin Competition, established in 1935 in his honor.

The Lost Birds

The sky was once full of birds. Magnificent flocks so enormous that they darkened the skies for days as they flew overhead. The most awe-inspiring of these flocks belonged to a bird called the passenger pigeon. At their height, they were the most numerous bird species in North America, with a population estimated at 5 billion. But over the course of a few decades, we eradicated them for food, using nothing but the crudest 19th-century hunting technology. With callous indifference, we simply shot them out of the sky, one by one, until their songs were never heard again. The Lost Birds is a memorial for their loss, and the loss of other species due to human activity. It’s a celebration of their beauty–as symbols of hope, peace, and renewal. But it also mourns their absence–through the lonely branches of a tree, or the fading echoes of distant bird cries. And like the metaphor of the canary in the coal mine, it’s also a warning: that unless we reverse our course, the fate that befell these once soaring flocks will be a foreshadowing of our own extinction.

To pay proper tribute to these birds, I adopted a distinctly 19th-century musical vocabulary: one based on the tunefulness of folk songs, with a string orchestra accompaniment that’s both soaring and melancholy. And to put their story into words, I turned to four 19th-century poets–Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Sara Teasdale. These women saw their world transform from a pastoral society to an industrial one–one in which humans, for the first time, began disastrously reshaping the environment. And the poems which I selected depict an increasingly fraught world: first without birds, and ultimately without humans.

We are now in the 21st century, and our tools for affecting the world around us–emissions, pesticides, deforestation–are more indiscriminate and cruelly efficient. As bird, fish, animal, and insect populations crash around us, we increasingly find ourselves in a silent world–one in which the songs of birds are heard less and less. We hope that the silence can be filled by more voices speaking up on behalf of these lost birds–for their sake, and for ours.

Christpher Tin

Christopher Tin is a two-time Grammy-winning composer of concert and media music. His music has been performed and premiered in many of the world’s most prestigious venues: Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Hollywood Bowl, the United Nations and Carnegie Hall. Performers include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Metropole Orkest, Queensland Symphony Orchestra and US Air Force Band, alongside Washington National Opera, Danielle de Niese, Ewa Plonka and Frederica von Stade.

His song “Baba Yetu”, a Swahili setting of The Lord’s Prayer originally written for the video game Civilization IV, is a modern choral standard, and the first piece of music written for a video game ever to win a Grammy Award. It’s been licensed for use by groups ranging from Premier League Football to the Vatican. Two different contestants performed it in the same season of America’s Got Talent. It was even a question on the legendary game show Jeopardy!

His debut album, the multi-lingual song cycle Calling All Dawns, won him a second Grammy in 2011, and his follow-up release The Drop That Contained the Sea debuted at #1 on Billboard’s classical charts having premiered to a sold-out audience at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium. His next album To Shiver the Sky also debuted at #1, and was funded by a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign that raised $221,415. The Lost Birds, a collaboration with acclaimed British vocal ensemble VOCES8, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2023 and has been heard live across Europe, the US, Asia and Australia. He is also an in-demand collaborator, working with musicians across a wide-range of genres: Lang Lang, VOCES8, Danielle de Niese, Lara Downes, Alan Menken, BT, and Danny Elfman, to name a few.

In 2024 Tin was invited by Francesca Zambello (director) to compose a new ending for Puccini’s Turandot at Washington National Opera. Writing in collaboration with librettist Susan Soon He Stanton (playwright and screenwriter/producer of Succession) the run at the Kennedy Center was sold out, played to standing ovations and was adored by the artists, audience and critics alike.

Tin is signed to an exclusive record deal with Universal under their legendary Decca label, published by Concord and Boosey & Hawkes, and is a Yamaha Artist. He works out of his own custom-built studio in Santa Monica, California.

Anthonys Fashion

Michael Swan’s suit this evening is brought to you by Anthonys Fashion.

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